Happ’s miserable outing offers stark contrast to Cain’s perfection

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SAN FRANCISCO — Standing in contrast to Matt Cain’s perfect game and having this box score eternally preserved was only rubbing it in.

J.A. Happ didn’t need that. He’d been through enough in what was easily his worst start of another rocky season.

As it turns out, the analog of the unstoppable force and immovable object dichotomy was homer-happy Happ pitching in homer-stingy AT&T Park and when Happ’s tendency won out, the lefty lost out.

Happ surrendered two home runs to a team that had only hit eight homers at home all year coming in. Actually, these two games that the Astros have played here have featured five of the Giants’ 11 home runs at home.

But in the bigger picture, Happ allowed eight runs on 11 hits while recording only 10 outs, shooting his ERA up to 5.33 on the season. He was long gone when Cain and his teammates were celebrating on the field.

“It seemed like it was just hard for me to keep them from dropping the ball in,” Happ said. “On a night like that when it seemed like it was that hard for me, you’ve got to give their guy credit for doing that and a lot more.”

The problems started early, and it was clear even then that there would be little leeway against Cain. Ryan Theriot singled, and Melky Cabrera homered to left-center as the second and third Giants batters of the game. And the next inning, Brandon Belt followed a Pablo Sandoval single with a blast to center field, the UT alum’s second of the season and second of the series.

“It’s tough to stay in the game and come back from that,” Happ said almost with universal truth, much less when there’s perfection on the other side. “I look forward to five days from now; that’s all. I’ll be ready then and just have to forget about this one.”

Happ has now surrendered 13 home runs, which is tied for third in the National League.

It’s the second straight night the Astros starter has lasted exactly 3 1/3 innings, with Bud Norris having left with an injury in Tuesday’s series opener. Any potential bullpen blowout is mitigated by two facts, first that these being road losses, they only have to account for eight innings of pitching.

And each night, they’ve received a long outing by a reliever with David Carpenter eating 2 2/3 Tuesday and Xavier Cedeno three full on Wednesday to avoid using the higher-leverage arms.

The Astros are going to need those with a tough series looming in Texas and no off-days for a week.